


Little-Mentioned Benefits to Polyamory

by LaughingStones



Category: Motorcity
Genre: Chuck has the magic touch, Kid Fic, Mike is trying to hog the baby-related sleep deprivation for himself, Multi, Poly Burners, The Burners have a baby, There's always the one person in the family, fight me, give them the baby to hold and the kid stops crying, look I just wanted sexy guys looking after something small and helpless, sorry Mike. Maybe it's a cyborg thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 01:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10865862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingStones/pseuds/LaughingStones
Summary: Like the Burners didn't haveenoughthings keeping them up at night.





	Little-Mentioned Benefits to Polyamory

Mike woke to thin, miserable wailing, and reached out immediately to touch Julie’s shoulder as she sighed and moved to throw back the covers.

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered. “I'll take him.”

Lying back down willingly, she folded back the covers anyway, which made it easier for Mike to get out of bed past her. Texas was still fast asleep on his other side, and made a much more impressive obstacle than Julie. The downside of being in the middle, he thought with a faint smile, but he'd fallen asleep before he could trade places with Texas.

“C’mere, little stuff,” he whispered, lifting Jack out of his crib, and slipped out of the room before the baby's crying could get any louder.

Jack quieted as he reached the stairs, and Mike made it all the way down them without further complaints. At first he dared to think this might be one of the lucky nights Jack just went back to sleep, but then the kid let out another whimper and broke into a full-throated howl. Well, Mike had expected it, Jack was going through a period of troubled nights lately. The trick was to make sure at least some of his parents got enough sleep.

Mike did the rocking thing, and the gentle bouncing and pacing thing, and the quiet humming, and Jack kept sounding desolate and miserable and lost. By now Mike should be used to it, shouldn't let it affect him, but it still made his heart ache. The poor little guy couldn't even talk to explain what the problem was, he just had to cry and hope someone could fix it.

It sucked that all too often, Mike couldn't fix it. Which he was also going to have to get used to, he knew. They could make Motorcity and Deluxe as safe as possible, but that didn't make life safe. When he got older, Jack would run into problems he'd have to sort out for himself. Mike was probably still going to think it sucked.

Sighing, he dropped onto the sofa and tried some rocking and bouncing again. “You wanna hear about Mutt’s safety upgrades?” he murmured through the steady crying. “Chuck and Jules might almost let me take you out for a ride now, if I swear not to take any of the fun roads.”

Jack showed no interest in the safety upgrades, but Mike told him about some of them anyway on the basis that trying was better than nothing. Also, talking would keep Mike from falling asleep despite the wailing in his ear.

“Oh my god, Mikey,” sighed a voice from the door. “I really don't think he cares.”

Mike looked up to give Chuck a sleepy smile, then frowned. “Dude, why are you still dressed? You gotta get more sleep, Chuckles, you're not a dang bot--” 

“Chill, geez,” Chuck said, coming over to sit next to him. “Gimme.” 

“Oh, pushy,” Mike said with a yawn, and handed Jack over.

“Yeah, and you like me that way,” Chuck said distractedly, tucking Jack into the crook of his elbow and jouncing him a little. Jack’s crying broke into shorter whimpers, then gradually quieted entirely.

Mike sighed, leaning into Chuck and closing his eyes. “Wish I knew how the heck you do that.”

“Bro, if I knew I'd tell you.” Chuck shifted his free arm around Mike’s shoulders and pulled him closer. “Also, I've been getting a ton more sleep than you have, don't even try that bull. The advantage of the kid having five parents is that we can switch around who gets to sleep and who's on call, remember? You gotta stop trying to keep all the sleep dep for yourself.”

“Hmm,” Mike said, less dubiously than he meant to because he was tired. “So why are you still awake?” 

“I was looking over those proposals like Julie asked me to. The figures check out, these new efficiency protocols look pretty good, but you can't use three weeks of data for a twelvemonth projection, I'm wondering if someone--hey. Mikey. Come on, buddy, don't fall asleep on me, you're awkward to carry.” 

“‘M not,” Mike mumbled. Chuck was really comfortable, and warm, and Mike wasn't interested in moving at all, but he definitely wasn't falling asleep. 

“You totally are, you dork,” Chuck murmured, sounding amused. “Come on now. Get back in bed. I'll bring him up when he's out again.”

Reluctantly Mike peeled himself off Chuck and headed for the door. He turned in the doorway as something hit him. “Hang on, where's Dutch? You wouldn't be up if you were keeping him up.”

Chuck shrugged one shoulder. “He got a call from Tennie and took off a little after you guys got busy.”

Mike blinked at him and sighed. “Why didn't you come join us, dude? Afterwards, if you didn't feel like sex.”

Chuck’s head ducked and he shrugged again, guilty and sheepish. He'd never slept easily, but in the years since the final battle for Deluxe it had gotten worse. It was better when he had someone in the bed with him, which shouldn't be a problem, with four candidates. Except that it was Chuck, who still had a hard time asking for what he needed. 

“And you call me a dork,” Mike said softly. “Fine. Tex can deal with it if Jack wakes up again. I'll be in with you.”

“You don't have to,” Chuck said, apparently to Jack, who was settling into a doze.

“Tell me something I don't know,” Mike murmured, coming back to the sofa, and tipped Chuck’s head up to kiss him. Chuck smiled a little when he pulled back, and he looked so cute Mike had to duck in to kiss him again.

“You could probably bring him up now,” Mike said, looking down at Jack, his tiny round face slack and peaceful under the puff of red hair. “Looks like he might stay out.”

“Yeah? All right, let's try it.”

They were in luck; Jack didn't stir when Chuck laid him in his crib. Mike led the way down the hall into the other big bedroom and supervised Chuck undressing and getting into bed, on the principle that otherwise it might not happen. Chuck didn't even bother to grumble, just tugged Mike down and hauled the blankets over them. Mike stayed awake barely long enough to snuggle close before passing out.


End file.
